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Saint Robert Lawrence Catholic Academy Trust Freedom of Information Publication Scheme

Adopted: November 2009 Last Reviewed: December 2012, March 2017 Date for Next Review: February 2020 Introduction This document explains how we will comply with our duties under the Freedom of Information Act. There are four appendices: Appendix 1 Procedure for dealing with request Appendix 2 Exemptions Appendix 3 Applying the Public Interest Test Appendix 4 Charging We will follow the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) Model Publication Scheme which is available from the ICO website: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1153/model-publication-scheme.pdf 1. The publication scheme and why it has been developed The Freedom of Information Act 2000 places a duty on us to be clear and proactive about the information we will make public through producing a publication scheme setting out:

The classes of information which we publish or intend to publish;

The manner in which the information will be published; and

Whether the information is available free of charge or on payment. The scheme covers information already published and information which is to be published in the future. All information in our publication scheme is available in paper form on request with the majority being available to download and print directly from the websites of the academies within our Trust: www.englishmartyrs.derbyshire.sch.uk www.priorycatholicschool.co.uk

www.st-johnhoughton.derbyshire.sch.uk www.saintjosephsschool-matlock.co.uk

Some information which we hold may not be made public, for example personal information, anything covered under the Data Protection Act and anything likely to compromise the security of the academy and the safety of students. 2. How to request information If you require a paper version of any of the documents within the scheme, please contact us by telephone, email, or letter. Contact details are set out below: Email: c.emery@st-johnhoughton.derbyshire.sch.uk Tel: 0115 9322896 Contact address: Saint Robert Lawrence Catholic Academy Trust

c/o Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy,

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Abbot Road, Kirk Hallam, Ilkeston, Derbyshire, DE7 4HX. To help us process your request quickly, please clearly mark any correspondence “FREEDOM OF INFORMATION PUBLICATION SCHEME REQUEST”. If the information you’re looking for isn’t available via the scheme you can still contact us to ask if we have it. We do not accept verbal requests. 3. Paying for information Information published on our websites is free, although you may incur costs from your internet service provider. Documents provided to you in electronic format will be provided free of charge. Single copies of information covered by this publication are provided free unless stated otherwise in section 6. If your request means that we have to do a lot of photocopying or printing, or pay a large postage charge, we will let you know the cost before fulfilling your request. We charge 0.05p per A4 copy for photocopying. 4. Classes of Information Currently Published on our website and available free of charge

Who we are and what we do

What we spend and how we spend it

What our priorities are and how we are doing

How we make decisions

Our policies and procedures

Lists and registers

The services we offer

5. Feedback and complaints We welcome any comments or suggestions you may have about the scheme. If you want to make any comments about this publication scheme or if you require further assistance then please contact The Company Secretary, Saint Robert Lawrence Catholic Academy Trust, c/o Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy, Abbot Road, Kirk Hallam, Ilkeston, Derbyshire, DE7 4HX. If you are not satisfied with the assistance you receive or if we have not been able to resolve your complaint, then please write to the Information Commissioner’s Office. This is the organisation that ensures compliance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and deals with formal complaints. They can be contacted at: Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF Or Enquiry/Information Line: 01625 545700 Email: publications:ic-foi.demon.co.uk Website: www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

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Appendix 1

Procedure for Dealing with Requests

1. To handle a request for information the delegated person will need to ask themselves a series of questions. These are set out below. Is it a FOI request for information?

2. A request for information may be covered by one, or all, of three information rights:

Data Protection enquiries (or subject access requests) are ones where the enquirer asks to see what personal information the school holds about the enquirer. If the enquiry is a Data Protection request, follow your existing school DPA guidance.

Environmental Information Regulations enquiries are ones which relate to air, water, land, natural sites, built environment, flora and fauna, and health, and any decisions and activities affecting any of these. These could therefore include enquiries about recycling, phone masts, school playing fields, car parking etc. If the enquiry is about environmental information, follow the guidance on the Information Commissioner’s website.

FOI enquiries are concerned with all other information and the reasoning behind decisions and policies. The request does not have to mention the FOI Act. All requests for information that are not data protection or environmental information requests are covered by the FOI Act.

Is this a valid FOI request for information?

3. An FOI request should:

be in writing, including email or fax;

state the enquirer’s name and correspondence address (email addresses are allowed);

describe the information requested - there must be enough information to be able to identify and locate the information1; and

not be covered by one of the other pieces of legislation. 4. Verbal enquiries are not covered by the FOI Act. Such enquiries can be dealt with where the enquiry is relatively straightforward and can be dealt with satisfactorily. However, for more complex enquiries, and to avoid disputes over what was asked for, you should ask the enquirer to put the request in writing or email, when the request will become subject to FOI. Does the academy or academy trust hold the information?

5. “Holding” information means information relating to the business of the school:

the school has created, or

the school has received from another body or person, or

held by another body on the school’s behalf. 6. Information means both hard copy and digital information, including email.

1 In cases where the enquiry is ambiguous assist the enquirer to describe more clearly the information

requested. Where possible, establish direct contact. The aim is to clarify the nature of the information requested and not to determine the aims or motivation of the enquirer. If you notify the enquirer that you need further information to enable you to answer, you do not have to deal with the request until the further information is received. The response time limit starts from the date this is received.

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7. If the Trust or academy does not hold the information, you do not have to create or acquire it just to answer the enquiry, although a reasonable search should be made before denying that you have got information the Trust/academy might be expected to hold. Has the information requested already been made public?

8. If the information requested is already in the public domain, for instance through your Publication Scheme or on your website, direct the enquirer to the information and explain how to access it.

Is the request vexatious or manifestly unreasonable or repeated?

9. The Act states that there is no obligation to comply with vexatious requests. This is taken to mean a request which is designed to cause inconvenience, harassment or expense rather than to obtain information, and would require a substantial diversion of resources or would otherwise undermine the work of the Trust/academy2. This however does not provide an excuse for bad records management.

Can we transfer a request to another body?

10. If the information is held by another public authority, such as your local authority, first check with them that they hold it, then transfer the request to them. You must notify the enquirer that you do not hold the information and to whom you have transferred the request. You should answer any parts of the enquiry in respect of information that you do hold. Could a third party’s interests be affected by disclosure?

11. Consultation of third parties may be required if their interests could be affected by release of the information requested, and any such consultation may influence the decision. You do not need to consult where you are not going to disclose the information because you will be applying an exemption. 12. Consultation will be necessary where:

disclosure of information may affect the legal rights of a third party, such as the right to have certain information treated in confidence or rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights;

the views of the third party may assist you to determine if information is exempt from disclosure, or

the views of the third party may assist you to determine the public interest. Does an exemption apply?

13. The presumption of the legislation is that you will disclose information unless the Act provides a specific reason to withhold it. There are more than 20 exemptions. They are set out in Appendix 2 and are mainly intended to protect sensitive or confidential information. 14. Only where you have real concerns about disclosing the information should you look to see whether an exemption might apply. Even then, where the potential exemption is a qualified exemption, you need to consider the public interest test to identify if the public interest in applying the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing it. Therefore, unless it is in the public interest to withhold the information, it has to be released. Appendix 3 contains guidance on conducting a public interest test.

2 It is not intended to include otherwise valid requests in which the applicant may make complaints or vent frustrations. In

addition, you do not have to comply with repeated identical or substantially similar requests from the same applicant unless

a “reasonable” interval has elapsed between requests.

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What if the request is for personal information?

15. Personal information requested by the subject of that information is exempt under the FOI Act as such information is covered by the Data Protection Act. Individuals must, therefore, continue to make a ‘subject access request’ under the Data Protection Act if they wish to access such information.

What if the details contain personal information?

16. Personal information requested by third parties is also exempt under the FOI Act where release of that information would breach the Data Protection Act. If a request is made for a document (e.g. Governing Body minutes) which contains personal information whose release to a third party would breach the Data Protection Act, the document may be issued by blanking out the relevant personal information as set out in the redaction procedure. The procedure for redaction is here3. How much can we charge?

17. The Act allows governing bodies to charge for providing information. For further information, see Appendix 4 18. The first step is to determine if the threshold (currently £450) would be exceeded. Staff costs should be calculated at £25 per hour. You can take account of the costs of determining if the information is held, locating and retrieving the information, and extracting the information from other documents. You cannot take into account the costs involved in determining whether information is exempt. 19. If a request would cost less than the appropriate limit, (currently £450) you can only charge for the cost of informing the applicant whether the information is held, and communicating the information to the applicant (e.g. photocopying, printing and postage costs). If a request would cost more than the appropriate limit, (£450) you can turn the request down, answer and charge a fee, or answer and waive the fee. If it decides to charge a fee, and does not have other powers to do so, it can charge on the basis of the costs outlined in Appendix 4. 20. You will however wish to consider whether calculating the cost of the fee outweighs the cost of providing the information. In practice we recommend that you respond to straightforward enquiries free of charge and only charge where the costs are significant. 21. If you are going to charge you must send the enquirer a fees notice and you do not have to comply with the request until the fee has been paid. Appendix 4 gives more information on charging.

3 The procedure for redaction is:

i) mask the passages which are not to be disclosed and photocopy; (ii)annotate in the margin against each blank passage, the exemption and section of the Act under which this passage is exempt; iv)explain in the covering letter that the relevant

exemptions are marked in the attachments and in the case of non-absolute exemptions, how the public interest test has been

considered.

On no account must you use the computer to rewrite the document or email and simply delete the exempted passages so that

the resulting document appears as though they did not exist. The one circumstance where this would be permissible would

be where the only redacted parts are personal information such as people’s names and the covering letter explains this.

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Is there a time limit for replying to the enquirer?

22. Compliance with a request must be prompt and certainly within the legally prescribed limit of 20 working days, excluding school holidays.4 Failure to comply could result in a complaint to the Information Commissioner. The response time starts from the time the request is received. Where you have asked the enquirer for more information to enable you to answer, the 20 days start time begins when this further information has been received. 23. If a qualified exemption applies and you need more time to consider the public interest test, you should reply within the 20 days stating that an exemption applies but include an estimate of the date by which a decision on the public interest test will be made. This should be within a “reasonable” time – in practice, it is recommended by the Department that normally this should be within 10 working days. 24. Where you have notified the enquirer that a charge is to be made, the time period stops until payment is received and then continues again once payment has been received.

What action is required to refuse a request?

25. If the information is not to be provided, the person dealing with the request must immediately contact the person in the school with delegated responsibility for FOI to ensure that the case has been properly considered and the reasons for refusal are sound. If it is decided to refuse a request, you need to send a refusals notice, which must contain

i) the fact that the responsible person cannot provide the information asked for; ii) which exemption(s) you are claiming apply; iii) why the exemption(s) apply to this enquiry (if it is not self-evident); iv) reasons for refusal if based on cost of compliance (see Appendix 4) v) in the case of non-absolute exemptions, how you have applied the public interest test, specifying the

public interest factors taken into account before reaching the decision (see Appendix 3) vi) reasons for refusal on vexatious or repeated grounds vii) the internal complaints procedure.

26. For monitoring purposes and in case of an appeal against a decision not to release the information or an investigation by the Information Commissioner, the responsible person must keep a record of all enquiries where all or part of the requested information is withheld and exemptions are claimed. The record must include the reasons for the decision to withhold the information. Records should be retained for 5 years. There are no requirements to keep records where you have supplied the information requested.

What do I do if someone complains?

27. Any written (including email) expression of dissatisfaction - even if it does not specifically seek a review – should be handled through the school’s existing complaints procedure which should be fair and impartial. The procedure should be clear and non bureaucratic. Wherever practicable the review should be handled by someone not involved in the original decision. The Governing Body should set and publish a target time for determining complaints and information on the success rate in meeting the target. The school should maintain records of all complaints and their outcome. 28. When the original request has been reviewed and the outcome is that the information should be disclosed this should be done as soon as practicable. When the outcome is that procedures within the school

4 An order to this effect is to be made under section 10(4) of the Act and should take effect from 1 January 2005

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have not been properly followed, the school should review procedures to prevent any recurrence. When the outcome upholds the school’s original decision or action, the applicant should be informed of their right to appeal to the Information Commissioner. The appeal should be made in writing to: FOI Compliance Team (complaints) Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF

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Appendix 2

Exemptions

1. Although decisions on disclosure should be made on a presumption of openness, the FOI Act recognises the need to preserve confidentiality and protect sensitive material in some circumstances.

2. You cannot withhold information in response to a valid request UNLESS one of the following applies:-

an exemption to disclosure, or

the information sought is not held, or

the request is considered vexatious or repeated or

the cost of compliance exceeds the threshold (see Appendix 4) The duty to confirm or deny 3. A person applying for information has the right to be told if the information requested is held by the school, and if that is the case to have the information sent (subject to any of the exemptions). This obligation is known as the school’s “duty to confirm or deny” that it holds the information. However, the school does not have to confirm or deny if:-

the exemption is an absolute exemption (see paragraph 6), or

in the case of qualified exemptions (see paragraph 8), confirming or denying would itself disclose exempted information

Exemptions 4. A series of exemptions are set out in the Act which allow the withholding of information in relation to an enquiry. Some are very specialised in their application (such as national security) and would not usually be relevant to schools. There are more than 20 exemptions but schools are likely to use only a few of them.

5. There are two general categories of exemptions:- Absolute: where there is no requirement to confirm or deny that the information is held, disclose the information or consider the public interest; and Qualified: where, even if an exemption applies, there is a duty to consider the public interest in disclosing information What are the Absolute Exemptions? 6. There are 8 absolute exemptions listed in the Act. Even where an absolute exemption applies:-

it does not mean that you can’t disclose in all cases; it means that disclosure is not required by the Act. A decision could be taken to ignore the exemption and release the information taking into account all the facts of the case

there is still a legal obligation to provide reasonable advice and assistance to the enquirer

7. The absolute exemptions in the Act are set out below. Those which might be relevant to schools are marked with an *:

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7.1 Information accessible to the enquirer by other means* (Section 21) If information is reasonably accessible to the applicant by another route than the Act, it is exempt information. This is the case even if the enquirer would have to pay for the information under that alternative route. This exemption includes cases where you are required to give information under other legislation, or where the information is available via the Publication Scheme. 7.2 Information dealing with security matters (Section 23) (see also qualified exemption under Section 24 on national security) This applies to information directly or indirectly supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security matters such as GCHQ, MI5, MI6, Special Forces and the National Criminal Intelligence Service. 7.3 Court records (Section 32) – (see also the qualified exemption under Section 30 concerning investigations and proceedings conducted by public authorities) This applies to information related to proceedings in a court or tribunal or served on a public authority for the purposes of proceedings. 7.4 Parliamentary Privilege (Section 34) This exempts information if it is required for the purpose of avoiding an infringement of the Parliamentary privilege. Parliamentary privilege is an immunity whereby MPs cannot be prosecuted for sedition or sued for libel or slander over anything said during proceedings in the House. 7.5 Prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs (Section 36) - see also the qualified exemption part of Section 36 This relates to the maintenance of the collective responsibility of Ministers. 7.6 Personal information* (Section 40) - see also the qualified exemption part of Section 40. Where enquirers ask to see information about themselves, this is exempt under the Act because it is covered by the Data Protection Act. Consult your existing school Data Protection guidance. 7.7 Information provided in confidence* (Section 41) This relates to information obtained from a person if its disclosure would constitute a breach of confidence actionable by that, or another, person. 7.8 Prohibitions on disclosure* (Section 44) Information is exempt where its disclosure is prohibited under any other legislation by order of a court or where it would constitute a contempt of court or where it is incompatible with any EC obligation. What are the Qualified Exemptions? 8. With qualified exemptions, even if it is decided that an exemption applies, there is a duty to consider the public interest in confirming or denying that the information exists and in disclosing information. Guidance on carrying out the public interest test is at Annex C. The qualified exemptions in the Act are set out below. Those which might be relevant to schools are marked with an *: 8.1 Information intended for future publication* (Section 22) If at the time the request was made, information is held with a view to publication, then it is exempt from disclosure if it is reasonable that it should not be disclosed until the intended date of publication. This could apply for instance to statistics published at set intervals, for example annually or where information is

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incomplete and it would be inappropriate to publish prematurely5. Remember, you still have a legal duty to provide reasonable advice and assistance. 8.2 National security (Section 24) (see also absolute exemption 23) Information is exempt for the purposes of safeguarding national security. 8.3 Defence (Section 26) Information is exempt if its disclosure would prejudice the defence of the UK. 8.4 International relations (Section 27) Information is exempt if its disclosure would or would be likely to, prejudice relations between the UK and any other state, international organisation. 8.5 Relations within UK (Section 28) Information is exempt if its disclosure would or would be likely to, prejudice relations between any administration in the UK ie the Government, Scottish Administration, Northern Ireland Assembly, or National Assembly of Wales. 8.6 The economy (Section 29) Information is exempt if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the economic or financial interests of the UK 8.7 Investigations and proceedings conducted by public authorities* (Section 30) Information is exempt if it has at any time been held by the school for the purposes of criminal investigations or proceedings, such as determining whether a person should be charged with an offence or whether a charged person is guilty, or investigations which may lead to a decision to institute criminal proceedings. The duty to confirm or deny does not apply to such information. 8.8 Law enforcement* (Section 31) Information which is not exempt under Section 30 Investigations and Proceedings, may be exempt under this exemption in the event that disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the following among others:-

the prevention or detection of crime

the apprehension or prosecution of offenders

the administration of justice

the exercise of functions such as ascertaining if a person has broken the law, is responsible for improper conduct, whether circumstances justify regulatory action, ascertaining a person’s fitness or competence in relation to their profession, ascertaining the cause of an accident or protecting or recovering charities or its properties

any civil proceedings brought by or on behalf of the school which arise out of an investigation carried out for any of the purposes mentioned above.

The duty to confirm or deny does not arise where prejudice would result to any of these matters.

5 Note the following:-

the intended publication does not have to be by the school, it can be by another person or body on behalf of the school

the date of publication does not have to be known, it could be at some future date (although it is recommended that some idea of a likely date is given)

the duty to confirm or deny does not apply if to do so would involve the disclosure of any of the relevant information

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8.9 Audit Functions (Section 33) Information is exempt if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the exercise of an authority’s functions in relation to the audit of the accounts of other public authorities. It does not apply to internal audit reports. 8.10 Formulation of government policy (Section 35) Information held is exempt information if it relates to the formulation or development of government policy, ministerial communications, advice by Law Officers (eg Attorney General) and the operation of any Ministerial private office

8.11 Prejudice to the conduct of public affairs (Section 36) (excluding matters covered by the absolute exemption part of Section 36) Information likely to prejudice the maintenance of the convention of the collective responsibility of Ministers or likely to inhibit the free and frank provision of advice or exchange of views

8.12 Communications with the Queen* (Section 37) Information is exempt if it relates to communications with the Queen, the Royal Family or Royal Household or if it relates to the award of honours. The duty to confirm or deny does not arise where this exemption applies. 8.13 Health and Safety* (Section 38) Information is exempt if its disclosure would or would be likely to endanger the safety or physical or mental health of any individual. The duty to confirm or deny does not arise where prejudice would result. 8.14 Environmental information* (Section 39) Information is exempt under FOI where it is covered by the Environmental Information Regulations. Environmental information can cover information relating to: air, water, land, natural sites, built environment, flora and fauna, and health. It also covers all information relating to decisions or activities affecting any of these. 8.15 Personal information* (Section 40) – see also the absolute exemption part of Section 40 Where an individual seeks information about themselves Data Protection Act powers apply. Where the information concerns a third party, it is exempt if its disclosure would contravene the Data Protection Act, or the data protection principles; or if the person to whom the information relates would not have a right of access to it because it falls under one of the exemptions to the Data Protection Act. The duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to this information if doing so would be incompatible with any of the above. 8.16 Legal professional privilege* (Section 42) Legal professional privilege covers any advice given by legal advisers, solicitors and barristers. Generally such information will be privileged. A school wishing to disclose the information will need to seek consent from the provider of the advice. This exemption covers all such information where a claim to legal professional privilege can be maintained in legal proceedings. The duty to confirm or deny does not arise where to do so would involve the disclosure of such information. 8.17 Commercial interests* (Section 43) Information is exempt if it constitutes a trade secret or would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of any person or body (including the school). The duty to confirm or deny does not arise where prejudice would result to commercial interests but not where the information constitutes a trade secret.

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Protective Markings and Applying Exemptions 9. When considering if an exemption to disclosure should apply, bear in mind that the presence of a protective marking (Restricted, Confidential or Secret, with or without descriptors such as Staff, Management, Commercial etc) does not constitute an exemption and is not in itself sufficient grounds on which to prevent disclosure. Each case must be considered on its merits. Timing 10. Where information has previously been withheld, it must not be assumed that any subsequent requests for the same information will also be refused. Sensitivity of information decreases with age and the impact of any disclosure will be different depending on when the request is received. Therefore, for each request, it will be necessary to consider the harm that could result at the time of the request and, while taking into account any previous exemption applications, each case should be considered separately.

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Appendix 3 Applying the Pubic Interest Test

Background 1. Having established that a qualified exemption(s) definitely applies to a particular case, you must then carry out a public interest test to identify if the public interest in applying the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing it. Therefore, unless it is in the public interest to withhold the information, it has to be released. Although precedent and a developed case law will play a part, individual circumstances will vary and each case will need to be considered on its own merits. Carrying out the test 2. It is worth noting that what is in the public interest is not necessarily the same as that which may be of interest to the public. It may be irrelevant that a matter may be the subject of public curiosity. In most cases it will be relatively straightforward to decide where the balance of the public interest in disclosure lies. However, there will inevitably be cases where the decision is a difficult one. Applying such a test depends to a high degree on objective judgement and a basic knowledge of the subject matter and its wider impact in the school and possibly wider. Factors that might be taken into account when weighing the public interest include:-

For Disclosure Against Disclosure

Is disclosure likely to increase access to information held by the school?

Is disclosure likely to distort public reporting or be misleading because it is incomplete?

Is disclosure likely to give the reasons for a decision or allow individuals to understand decisions affecting their lives or assist them in challenging those decisions?

Is premature disclosure likely to prejudice fair scrutiny, or release sensitive issues still on the internal agenda or evolving?

Is disclosure likely to improve the accountability and transparency of the school in the use of public funds and help to show that it obtains value for money?

Is disclosure likely to cause unnecessary public alarm or confusion?

Is disclosure likely to contribute to public debate and assist the understanding of existing or proposed policy?

Is disclosure likely to seriously jeopardise the school’s legal or contractual position?

Is disclosure likely to increase public participation in decision-making?

Is disclosure likely to infringe other legislation e.g. Data Protection Act?

Is disclosure likely to increase public participation in political processes in general?

Is disclosure likely to create a controversial precedent on the release of information or impair your ability to obtain information in the future?

Is disclosure likely to bring to light information affecting public safety?

Is disclosure likely to adversely affect the school’s proper functioning and discourage openness in expressing opinions?

Is disclosure likely to reduce further enquiries on the topic?

If a large amount of information on the topic has already been made available, would further disclosure shed any more light or serve any useful purpose?

3. Note also that:

potential or actual embarrassment to, or loss of confidence in, the school, staff or governors is NOT a valid factor

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the fact that the information is technical, complex to understand and may be misunderstood may not of itself be a reason to withhold information

the potential harm of releasing information will reduce over time and should be considered at the time the request is made rather than by reference to when the relevant decision was originally taken

the balance of the public interest in disclosure cannot always be decided on the basis of whether the disclosure of particular information would cause harm, but on certain higher order considerations such as the need to preserve confidentiality of internal discussions

a decision not to release information may be perverse i.e. would a decision to withhold information because it is not in the public interest to release it, itself result in harm to public safety, the environment or a third party?

4. You will need to record the answers to these questions and the reasons for those answers. Deciding on the public interest is not simply a matter of adding up the number of relevant factors on each side. You need to decide how important each factor is in the circumstances and go on to make an overall assessment. For Disclosure 5. Where the balance of the public interest lies in disclosure, the enquiry should be dealt with and the information required should be made available. Where the factors are equally-balanced, the decision should usually favour disclosure (but see 3rd bullet point above). Against Disclosure 6. After carrying out the public interest test if it is decided that the exemption should still apply, proceed to reply to the request. There will be occasions when it has been decided that a qualified exemption applies but consideration of the public interest test may take longer. In such a case, you must contact the enquirer within 20 working days stating that a particular exemption applies, but including an estimate of the date by which a decision on the public interest test will be made. This should be within a “reasonable” time – in practice, it is recommended this decision is made and communicated within the 20 days but where not possible it is suggested that no more than 10 working days beyond the 20 days should be allowed.

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Appendix 4

Charging

May I charge a fee? FOI does not require charges to be made but schools have discretion to charge applicants a fee in accordance with the Fees Regulations. What steps should we take in considering whether to charge? Step 1. Is the information exempt for the purposes of the FOI Act? If information is exempt, then fees do not apply. You may not know if information is exempt until it has been located and checked. However, there are many instances, for example information in your publication scheme, when it is automatically exempt. If you wish to charge for information in your publication scheme, this should be made clear in the scheme itself. The school would need to contact the enquirer to inform them that the information is exempt, and how to obtain it. Step 2. Do you wish to calculate whether the cost of the request would exceed the appropriate limit (currently £450)? In many cases, it will be obvious that the request would cost less than the appropriate limit, so there would be little point in making the calculation. Step 3. Calculate the appropriate limit Staff costs are calculated at £25 per hour. When calculating whether the limit is exceeded, schools can take account of the costs of determining whether the information is held, locating and retrieving the information, and extracting the information from other documents. They cannot take account of the costs involved with considering whether information is exempt under the Act. Step 4. Requests costing less than the limit If a request would cost less than the limit, schools can only charge for the cost of informing the applicant whether the information is held, and communicating the information to the applicant (e.g. photocopying, printing and postage costs) Step 5. Requests exceeding the limit If a request would cost more than the limit, the school can turn the request down, answer and charge a fee, or answer and waive the fee. If you choose to comply with a request where the estimated cost exceeds the threshold you should calculate the charge as outlined in Step 3, plus the costs of informing the applicant whether the information is held, and communicating the information to them (e. printing and postage costs)

Step 6. For all requests, schools should have regard to the following two points:

The duty to provide advice and assistance to applicants. If planning to turn down a request for cost reasons, or charge a high fee, you should contact the applicant in advance to discuss whether they would prefer the scope of the request to be modified so that, for example, it would cost less than the appropriate limit.

Maximum amount that can be charged. The Regulations set out the maximum amount that can be charged. However there is nothing to stop schools charging a lesser or no fee. Governing bodies should develop a consistent policy on charging.

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May I aggregate the costs where there are multiple requests? Where two or more requests are made to the school by different people who appear to be acting together or as part of a campaign the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to be the estimated total cost of complying with them all, provided that:

(a) the two or more requests referred to in that section are for information which is on the same subject matter or is otherwise related; (b) the last of the requests is received by the school before the twentieth working day following the date of receipt of the first of the requests; and

(c) it appears to the school that the requests have been made in an attempt to ensure that the prescribed costs of complying separately with each request would not exceed the appropriate limit.

If you get multiple requests for the same information, it is good practice to include the information in your publication scheme.

How do I inform the applicant of the fee? 1. Where you intend to charge a fee for complying with a request for information then the school must give the person requesting the information notice in writing (the “fees notice”) stating that a fee of the amount specified in the notice is to be charged for complying. 2. Where a fees notice has been given to the person making the request, you do not need to comply with the request unless the fee is paid within three months of the notice being received.